Vancouver head coach Marc Crawford led the Colorado Avalanche to the Stanley Cup in 1996 and won two Memorial Cups as a player.

Crawford captained Memorial Cup winner
By John McGourty | NHL.com
Oct. 4, 2004

Vancouver Canucks coach Marc Crawford played six seasons with the Canucks, including a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals in 1982. He coached the Quebec Nordiques and Colorado Avalanche from 1994-98, winning the 1995 Jack Adams Award and the 1996 Stanley Cup.

Crawford was named coach of the Canucks in 1998 and is now their all-time winningest coach. With a nice blend of talented veterans, hot young prospects and younger veterans coming into their own, the Canucks are poised to make a serious run at the Stanley Cup.

A native of Belleville, Ontario, Crawford was the head coach for Team Canada in the 1998 Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, and he was an assistant coach with Canada's silver medal-winning team in the 1996 World Cup of Hockey.

Crawford played every game of his six-year NHL career with the Canucks, recording 19 goals and 31 assists in 176 games. He was a rookie on the Canucks team that made a run to the Stanley Cup finals to face the NY Islanders in 1982. Crawford also won two Memorial Cups as a player with the Cornwall Royals in 1980 and 1981 and was voted to the Memorial Cup All-Star team in 1981 after recording 20 goals and 15 assists in 19 games.

Wow, you played on two Memorial Cup winners with the Cornwall Royals. Your teammates included Dale Hawerchuk, Doug Gilmour, Scott Arniel and Bobby Hull Jr. Who coached?

The first one was a bit of surprise. We beat Mike Keenan's Peterborough Petes with Larry Murphy, Tom Fergus, Dave Fenyves and Mark Reeds. They were a big favorite. The other team was the Regina Pats, coached by Bryan Murray, and they had Doug Wickenheiser, Ron Flockhart, Barry Trotz and Darren Veitch. Doug Carpenter coached us the first year and former NHL referee Bob Kilger, Chad's dad, the second year.

To beat Peterborough, we won in overtime on an end-to-end rush by Robert Savard, who might be the only guy to win three Memorial Cups because he was an over-age player the next year with Kitchener after we won our second Memorial Cup in Windsor. Dale Hawerchuk was only 16 that first year. Doug Gilmour was on our second Memorial Cup winner. We had Hawerchuk, Arniel and Gilmour at center. No wonder we won. Gilmour was outstanding in the final against Kitchener, which had first-year defenseman Al MacInnis, Brian Bellows, Wendell Young and my brother, Lou. I was Cornwall's captain the second year. The Western league team was Victoria with Grant Fuhr and Barry Pederson. We put five guys on NHL rosters and Gilmour led Canadian juniors in scoring two straight years.

Our best player and the MVP of the Memorial Cup was defenseman Dave Ezard, a good friend of mine who tragically died too young from illness in 1995.

You got called up to the Vancouver Canucks, the team you now coach, your first professional season. How did that go?

I had four goals and five assists, not bad for a defenseman, but I was a forward. Our team really came together after the trade deadline and we went to the Stanley Cup Finals where we lost to the Islanders in the middle of their dynasty. We gave them a real good go the first two games on Long Island. (Mike) Bossy let a rocket go in overtime in Game 2 and I don't think we touched the puck in Game 3. They really hit their form that night. We played better in the fourth game, but Billy Smith and Bossy were outstanding. He had eight goals in four games and won the Conn Smythe Trophy.

I was really happy to be a part of that and to continue the winning tradition from my junior days. I was used to winning and I think my coaches, Harry Neale and Roger Neilson, could see that. I mostly played on the fourth line, an energy guy. I had a lot of fun. I realized how big the NHL is when I returned home to Belleville, Ontario. I didn't know I knew that many people.

Belleville? Somebody else is from Belleville?

Bobby Hull lived right down the road. Both Blake and Bobby Hull Jr. were good players. Bobby Jr. was a big strong guy with a strong shot. I thought he would have gotten better, but he never had the scoring touch of his brother. I see Bobby Sr. and his brother, Dennis, all the time when I'm home. They grew up next door to my aunt. It's a small community, but the Hulls put it on the map. They're icons in that part of the world.

Dennis is the funniest man I know and a great speaker. He can keep you laughing for hours. He tells this story that he was in Henri Richard's house and there's a big picture from Richard's playing days on the wall above an engraved plaque in French. Dennis is in the picture so he asks what the plaque says. Richard tells him it says, "Here is Henri Richard and Dennis Hull. Between them they have won 11 Stanley Cups." Of course, it was Richard that won the 11 Stanley Cups.

You were named coach of the Quebec Nordiques in 1994 and won the Jack Adams Award that season. At 33, you were the youngest coach to win it. Two years later, you won the Stanley Cup after the team moved to Colorado.

We had a great team. The talent you have means so much to what you can accomplish as a coach. That club had been a first-place club twice, then had a bad year. That's how I got my opportunity. Pierre Lacroix was a young general manager and he wanted a young coach. I had coached his son, Eric, in the AHL. Pierre gave me a great opportunity to start my NHL coaching career. I had a good staff, including Joel Quenneville, who had worked with me at St. John's, and Jacques Martin, an experienced guy who helped us make fewer mistakes.

We had a young team that was anxious to put behind them the bad year before. We had the work stoppage that year and then we got off to a great start, winning 12 of our first 13 games. We were also 23-1 at home. We lost in the playoffs to the Rangers, the defending Stanley Cup champions, but that series took a lot out of them. The next year we moved to Denver and won the Stanley Cup with a few roster changes. Pierre had a good handle on what was needed. He was both lucky and intelligent enough to make the trades for Patrick Roy, Mike Keane and Claude Lemieux. That made us a great team for a number of years.

Then you returned to Vancouver, where you've become the winningest coach in team history.

That's the beauty of coming back to a place you know. I knew the town and I knew the people running the team. Brian Burke was here when I was still playing. Pat Quinn gave me my first coaching chance at the minor-league level. I knew Brian when he worked at the NHL office and we developed a good friendship. I was excited to have the opportunity to work with good people like Steve Tambellini and I got to know current General Manager Dave Nonis. This is a really good staff to work with. Many of the same people are here from my playing days, including the public-relations staff. I played here with Ron Delorme, now our chief amateur scout. When you know people like that, it really helps rekindle the spirit.

Which current player(s) do you think is poised for a breakout season?

There are several, I hope. Forwards Daniel and Henrik Sedin and Matt Cooke. On defense, Bryan Allen is ready to accept more responsibility and be more of a solid presence. Allen is coming into his own. Cooke had such a great World Championship.

The Sedins will score quite well. I may experiment by playing them with Todd Bertuzzi when he gets back or we could pick up someone suited to be a finisher with them. Jason King will be a year older and stronger and maybe more ready to handle the tension. He's as professional a young man as I've met. He had to learn to handle the expectations. It's tough for everybody and you don't know until you go through it.

Which prospect most excites you?

Ryan Kesler excites me a lot. We think he's going to be really good. He has great size and speed. His knowledge of the game, at his age, is pretty good. With his offensive ability, we think he'll be top player for a lot of years. He's a Trevor Linden-type player. I'm giving a lot of credit to a kid when I compare him to someone that good, but he's done it everywhere he's been, in the World Juniors, at Ohio State and the games he played with us last year.